crucifixion

Over at Thailand's "The Nation", you will find coverage of a bizarre practice, made all the more strange by the fact that it happens each and every year. In this report, 24 penitents had themselves nailed to crosses in a recreation of Christ's crucifixion and death. They apparently leave out the death part, but they do go through the actual process of having themselves nailed to a cross, with large nails hammered into their palms by guys dressed up as Roman soldiers.

Now you've got to hand it to them (no pun intended), these are people who really truly believe. They're also not entirely sane, I'd wager. But I guess nothing says "I believe" like participating in a brutal display of torture and human sacrifice.

A lot of questions surround this practice, and I'm not even talking about the question of whether there was a Jesus who died for our collective sins. The questions are more along the lines of this: